Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

INK SPOTS, The

Enormously popular black vocal and instrumental quartet. Original lineup: Jerry Daniels, guitar and lead tenor (14 December 1915; d 7 November 1995, Indianapolis IN); Orville 'Hoppy' Jones, bass (b 17 February 1902, Chicago; d 18 October 1944, NYC); Ivory 'Deek' Watson (b 18 July 1909, Mounds IL; d 4 November 1969, Washington DC), Charlie Fuqua (b 20 October 1910; d 21 December 1971, New Haven CN). Jones formed a duo in Indianapolis in 1928; the group went through many permutations and name changes until the quartet arrived in New York from Cincinnati in 1934 calling themselves King, Jack And Jesters; it is said that Paul Whiteman asked them to change their name because he was calling his vocal group the King's Jesters. They spent the last three months of 1934 in Britain and worked with bandleader Jack Hylton. They first recorded for Victor Records in January 1935; Daniels retired, replaced by Bill Kenny (b 12 June 1914; d 23 March 1978, Vancouver BC); they switched to Decca in May 1936.

They had sung jazzy uptempo material and danced in their stage act (one of their earlier names was the Riff Brothers); Jones played a string bass or a cello strung like a bass; the others played guitars, and Fuqua played a ukelele or a tipple, a small ten-stringed guitar with a mandolin-like tone that carried over the voices. (The Spirits Of Rhythm, with Leo Watson, and the Cats And A Fiddle, lead singer Austin Powell, also used tipples.) Their hit style evolved on Decca, concentrating on ballads, with Kenny's high tenor lead and a talking chorus by Jones: They hit the big time with 'If I Didn't Care' '39 and had nearly 50 hit records through 1951.

When Jones died he was replaced by Kenny's brother Herb (d August 1992 aged 78); Watson was later replaced by Billy Bowen. Eleven top tens in the 1940s included 'The Gypsy' and 'To Each His Own', both no. 1 '46; 'Maybe' '40 and Duke Ellington's 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' '43 were no. 2; hits with Ella Fitzgerald included a two-sided no. 1 hit 'I'm Making Believe'/'Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall' and Ellington's 'I'm Beginning To See The Light'. They appeared in films Great American Broadcast '41, Pardon My Sarong '42. Kenny recorded solo including gospel song 'It Is No Secret' (with the Song Spinners, top 20 hit '51). A set of their Decca 78s made Billboard's album chart '46.

In 1952 there were two groups of Ink Spots, Fuqua and Kenny each owning 50 per cent of the name; Fuqua's Ink Spots recorded for King with Watson, Harold Jackson and tenor Jimmy Holmes. While Fuqua was doing military service in 1945, Bernie Mackey played guitar, then Huey Long for nine months until Fuqua returned: Huey Long d 10 June 2009, Houston TX, aged 105, the last member of the original Ink Spots lineups.